Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

I recently read an internet list of the 10 most common fears. It included arachnophobia–fear of spiders; claustrophobia–fear of enclosed spaces; and aerophobia–fear of flying. 

Though I’ve dealt with fear all my life, the list wasn’t much help. My fears were never as pointed or definable as “fear of spiders” or “fear of flying”. Mine was a spirit of fear, an assortment of nameless fears that churned my stomach and twisted my view of life. 

For years, I had no name for my problem. Then one day in college as I stepped into the winter cold for a 20-minute walk to my dorm, I realized, “This feeling that I feel so often is fear!” 

It was a relief to have a name for it. But what was I afraid of? I was afraid of people. I was afraid life would overwhelm me. That I might fail as a student, and as a human. I feared I’d slide into a pit of hopelessness and despair.   

What to do about fear, now that I had a name for it?  I read John who says:
    There is no fear in love,
      but perfect love casts out fear
      because fear has torment.
            (1 Jn 4:18)

The only perfect love I knew was God’s love. Would that be strong enough to dislodge the fear?  

I mentioned my experience to one of the elders at church, who said, “There’s another solution to fear. Look at Psalm 57.” 
    When I am afraid I will put my trust in you.
      In God, whose word I trust.
      In the Lord, whose word I praise.
    In God I put my trust,
      I will not be afraid. 
    (Ps 57:3-4)

Love and faith. Solutions to fear. But they didn’t help me overnight. They are signposts that point me in a lifelong direction, teaching me that the churning fear in my stomach is not a true assessment of danger, that the paralyzing obsessions in my mind are false guides to reality. 

I can live in an alternate universe, where God is in control, where trust replaces fear, where love wins forever. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we have had much to fear since Adam fell. We are locked out of the garden, we pull weeds east of Eden. Violence and wars dismay us; hurricanes and wildfires damage the earth; conspiracy theories and obsessions corrupt our society. 

But we trust in you. Though you shut us out of Eden, you invite us into your family. Though angels with fiery swords block our return, you send your son to pull weeds with us and show us the way forward.  

May faith free our minds. May your love quiet our obsessions. May trust in you drive out our fears. May we walk confidently as your children. 

We trust you will have the final say, that our lives and our world and the new world to come will be rooted and grounded in love. 

As John says, “There is no fear in love” (1 Jn 4:18). 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

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